Telstra has signed a deal with software design and digital content company Autodesk to license 7800 units of its OnSite Enterprise product, which will be deployed on PDAs to Telstra workers who install and fix phones out in the field.
To be rolled out as Telstra's Graphical Data Delivery (GDD) application, the telco's licensing deal also comprises of 3200 Autodesk Map 5 applications for desktops.
GDD reads Telstra's graphical database and provides online access to these plans and records -- deploying an intelligent database of records to field staff who can perform full-query functions on the network, according to Telstra project manager, Dave McCallum.
"I'd expect to see, over time, an improvement in the integrity of data contained in our database of records," McCallum said.
McCallum explained that there would also be significant cost savings associated with the move to PDAs as field workers currently view records by microfiche -- 15-year-old, out-dated technology which provides photographic records on cards similar to x-ray films that are studied with a handheld viewer.
-There will certainly be some cost reduction benefits associated with returning microfiche contracts," McCallum said.
Although GDD won't provide any time efficiencies, it will provide field workers with -true currency of data," McCallum added, explaining that the application will provide details of Telstra's current network as well as proposed network changes.
With the architectural environment in its final stages and server installation intended for completion by the end of the week, Telstra will test both applications with a small team of people for a week beginning November 5. As of November 19, the telco plans to begin piloting GDD in Adelaide.
-The application, all being well and good, will be ready for deployment January 7," McCallum said. The project is currently on schedule, he added.
Telstra is looking at a six-month rollout of GDD to field staff, saying that the biggest constraint is training.
-You simply can't pull 8000 people out of the field for one day to train them," McCallum said, adding that Telstra was looking to train people roughly at a rate of 1000 a month.
The price of the Autodesk deal was undisclosed as is the price-tag Telstra anticipates paying for the 7800 field devices, which will be a mix of Compaq's iPAQ 3660 and Hewlett-Packard's Jornada 540.
